Municipal Affairs and Environment

Water Quality Indices

Water Quality Index (WQI)

A Water Quality Index (WQI) is a means to summarize large amounts of water quality data into simple terms (e.g. good or fair) for reporting to management
and the public in a consistent manner. Similar to the UV index and air quality index, it evaluates and ranks the quality of water bodies for various
beneficial uses of water, such as habitat for aquatic life, agricultural irrigation and livestock water and drinking water supplies.

National and Other Jurisdictions

Canadian Environmental Sustainability Indicators (CESI) National Reporting
NL WRMD has been contributing to the CESI National Freshwater Indicator
since its inception in
2005. CESI’s Freshwater Quality Indicator.

Application and Testing of the Water Quality Index in Atlantic Canada
A pilot study was completed by CCME as the first comprehensive attempt to apply the WQI to the
four Atlantic Provinces. This report used both provincial and federal data in the WQI to reflect the
state of information and knowledge of our water resources. The reports developed by this pilot
study are listed below for download: